Hoard

A hoard is a group of items of perceived value hidden for safekeeping and with an intention of later retrieval. Hoards can date to any period and are often made up of metal items such as coins, ingots or jewellery. At a time when metal was scarce hoards may consist of broken items hidden with an intention of later recasting. The retrieval of some hoards was not intended being deposited as offerings; these are known as ‘votive hoards’.

Hoards can date from many periods but in Bronze Age, and particularly Late Bronze Age hoards, such as that at The Coombe in Ivinghoe, are quite common. A hoard of Roman pewter vessels was also found in Fleet Marston. Many hoards are found through metal-detecting but it is only with immediate reporting that archaeologists can excavate the find properly and work out how and why it was buried.